Willibald Borowietz

Willibald Borowietz (17 September 1893-1 July 1945) was a highly-decorated Generalleutnant of the German Wehrmacht who commanded the 15th Panzer Division during World War II.

Biography
Willibald Borowietz was born on 17 September 1893 in Ratibor, Silesia, German Empire (present-day Raciborz, Poland). He entered the Imperial German Army in 1914, serving in World War I before leaving the armed services in 1919. He would rejoin the military in 1935, serving in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht, but he had many obstacles blocking advancement in the ranks; Borowietz had married a Jewish wife, Eva Ledien. In October 1938, Ledien killed herself so that her children could be "Aryanized", and Borowietz was free to be promoted (his sister-in-law would be killed in Ravensbruck in 1944). Borowietz commanded the 15th Panzer Division from its September 1940 creation to its May 1943 surrender, fighting exclusively in North Africa before his division surrendered at Cap Bon. The US Army imprisoned him at Camp Clinton in Mississippi, United States, where he killed himself via electrocution in the bathtub.